Apps Are Creating New Jobs

Smartphones Are a Venue to Sell Clothes,Offer Taxi Rides

Apps have created a range of jobs that don't require a computer science degree and pay employees enough money to make a living. WSJ's Monika Vosough met Gabriel Hill who works for the on-demand errand service app Exec.

By

Greg Bensinger and

Jessica E. Lessin

Updated March 5, 2013 7:21 p.m. ET

A year ago, Ashley Diedrich worked 12-hour shifts at a psychiatric hospital near her home in Hot Springs, Ark., making $1,700 to $2,000 a month. Today she makes as much as $3,000 a month peddling women's clothing and accessories from home.

The career change was spurred by an iPhone app called Poshmark. Developed by a Silicon Valley company with the same name, it connects buyers and sellers of designer clothing via their smartphones. Poshmark takes a 20% cut of each transaction and helps facilitate shipping.

"Now I make better money faster," says Ms. Diedrich, 27 years old, who quit her nursing job last May and now spends evenings after her children have gone to bed photographing blouses and sweaters on a mannequin dubbed "Barbie" in her kitchen.

Ms. Diedrich is among a growing group of people affected by the recent extension of the business of apps beyond software developers and giant technology companies like Apple Inc. and Google Inc. Mobile apps have spawned new sets of jobs that people across the country are performing without having to have a computer-science degree.

The Business of Apps

How big of a money maker are apps? What country's GDP is the size of the global app economy? How does app use compare to TV in terms of time spent per day? WSJ's Jason Bellini has answers.

A year ago, Ashley Diedrich worked at a psychiatric hospital near her home in Hot Springs, Ark., making $1,700 to $2,000 a month. Today she makes as much as $3,000 a month selling women's clothing and accessories from home.

Would-be taxi drivers are making a living via ride-sharing transportation apps like Lyft and Uber. Others are working as couriers using delivery apps like Postmates, or renting out their driveways on Parking Panda.

Indeed, smartphones and tablets—which typically have built-in cameras, Internet connections and global-positioning systems—enable just about anyone to be a roving merchant or courier. The proliferation of jobs tied to mobile apps recalls the early days of the Internet in the 1990s, when Americans realized they could sell goods to customers from their desktop computers via sites like eBay Inc. and Yahoo! Auctions.

Favorite Apps

Business leaders, athletes and entertainers share their smartphone and tablet apps for work and play. Tell us your favorites at #favoriteapp

Though data on the size of the app economy for nondevelopers are scarce, venture capitalists say interest in mobile marketplaces is growing.

"It's a great way to make your car payment by renting your car, or making rent by renting your apartment," says Patricia Nakache, a venture capitalist with Trinity Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif. Its investments include thredUP, an app for selling used children's clothing.

Poshmark CEO Manish Chandra says he set out to bring in users who could make a living using his app. "There's an emotional connection with your phone," he says. "I think our users are seeing that."

The apps pay out in different ways. Postmates couriers get 70%to 80% of the delivery fee, which ranges from $5 to $20, but the company doesn't touch tips. Lyft drivers keep at least 80% of the fares they collect.

For now, few of the jobs created by mobile apps are full-time gigs. Tiffany Jackson, of The Woodlands, Texas, uses days off from her tech-support job to make extra money using a mobile app called EasyShift, created by Quri Inc. The app pays people to use their smartphones to document inventory, shelf placement and other marketing data for major manufacturers.

About once a week, Ms. Jackson drives 30 miles south to Houston to photograph bottles of soda, cups of yogurt, bags of coffee and other commercial ephemera at grocery and general stores in exchange for cash that typically run $3 to $4 per task. More complicated tasks can run as high as $40.

Ms. Jackson says she makes up to $300 a month through EasyShift. "It's not hard work, but it can take time to complete a shift," says Ms. Jackson, 27, using the app's lingo for a set task. She says she uses the money to feed and house a thoroughbred horse she rides for competitive matches of polocrosse, a mashup of lacrosse and polo.

Ms. Manit, who netted about $100 that day, says that she can make $400 a week using Lyft, roughly as much as she makes from her fitness gigs. "It's kind of your own way to get a bunch of cash while being flexible," she says.

Others use mobile apps to make extra money after previously using websites. Brenden Mulligan, a 32-year-old app developer in San Francisco, has sold electronics, including a MacBook Air laptop, via an app named Yardsale. It connects neighbors seeking to sell their stuff to shoppers who want to avoid shipping hassles. Yardsale isn't taking a cut of the proceeds as it seeks to attract users.

Mr. Mulligan used to sell used items through Craigslist, but he finds Yardsale easier to use. He estimates he has sold $1,000 of goods through the app, which uses GPS to pinpoint products within a few miles of a buyer.

Chris Mok, 47, says he makes about $60,000 a year in San Francisco via an app called TaskRabbit, which matches freelance laborers with jobs in exchange for a 20% cut. Through the app, interested workers bid on a given task. Mr. Mok says he works nearly seven days a week on such jobs as creating custom closets, painting walls and constructing Ikea furniture. "Working off an app is just much more efficient," he says.

For Ms. Diedrich, the journey from nurse to clothes seller began last May when she discovered the Poshmark app while browsing the Apple App Store. Within a day, she had sold six used blouses from her closet for $55 after uploading photos to the app. By the third day, she had sold other castoffs to five different customers. She says she quickly realized she could make money from the app while giving herself more time at home and saving money on childcare.

Less than two weeks after downloading the app, Ms. Diedrich stopped accepting nursing shifts in favor of working full-time on Poshmark. She has now turned a spare room into a minidistribution center, complete with clothing racks and shelving units.

Today, she says, she ships as many as 15 packages daily, up from a handful a day a few months ago. Women's shirts, jeans and heels are among her top sellers, she says. She replenishes her inventory from family members and Poshmark itself as well as websites and area thrift stores.

Poshmark sends sellers a U.S. Postal Service label via email after the buyer's fee is collected. Sellers can then take the boxes to a post office or arrange to have them picked up.

"At first my husband thought I was nuts, but now he helps me out," says Ms. Diedrich. It was he, she adds, who bought her the "Barbie" mannequin.

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